Hackers expose infidelity website Ashley Madison

A group of hackers calling themselves ‘the Impact Group’ have breached a website catering to cheating spouses. Ashley Madison’s motto “Life is short. Have an affair” boasts having almost 40 million anonymous members. Now the private data of the users has been laid bare.

The identity and credit card information of 32 million users of the adulterous website have been released to the public. The account information goes back to 2007. The repercussions of this invasion of privacy by the computer vigilantes has yet to be seen. It has been reported that there were thousands of email addresses which look to be from government servers.

“The data also includes descriptions of what members were seeking. ‘I’m looking for someone who isn’t happy at home or just bored and looking for some excitement,’ wrote one member who provided an address in Ottawa and the name and phone number of someone who works for the Customs and Immigration Union in Canada.”

The hackers had demanded that the owners of the site, Avid Life Media, to take down the wayward website along with another called establishedmen.com which caters to “Connecting young, beautiful women with interesting men.”

The below screenshot from Wired.com shows how the hackers presented the data they dumped on the internet. Judging by the content of their letter is appears that ‘the Impact Group’ could be a dissatisfied customer exacting revenge. If that distinction matters.